BOSTON — Dustin Pedroia is the bantamweight champion of American League clutch hitters.

David Ortiz is the heavyweight champion.

They punched the Red Sox out of the 13-strikeout corner that Max Scherzer put them into.

Pedroia doubled off Scherzer in the sixth to drive in Boston’s first run, a small but noticeable counter to the four-run rally in the top of the inning. It was Boston’s first run of the series. “Hey, we’re still here,” Pedroia seemed to say as he looked into his dugout from second base and clapped his hands.

With two out in the eighth, Pedroia needed to get on to bring up Ortiz as the potential tying run. Pedroia lashed a single to right.

Then Ortiz showed why for years he’s been known as the best clutch hitter in Red Sox history. He hit a first-pitch grand slam off Joaquin Benoit to tie the score.

The Tigers had done the inexcusable. They let a four-run lead get away with four outs to go. They let a 2-0 series lead become a 1-1 series tie.

But with Pedroia and Ortiz involved, the inexcusable at least becomes understandable, up to a point.

Worst-case scenario

If the Tigers lose this series, the most lasting debate about Sunday night’s eighth inning will be whether the Tigers should have given Ortiz anything to hit. If they had pitched him down and away and he had drawn a bases-loaded walk, the Red Sox would have moved within 5-2, and Mike Napoli – the Red Sox’ everyday fifth-place hitter – would have batted for Mike Carp. Manager John Farrell held Napoli out of the lineup against Max Scherzer.

Was there any discussion of not even throwing Ortiz a strike?

“No, that wasn’t discussed,” catcher Alex Avila said. “Skip (Jim Leyland), Joaquin and myself figured we’d make the pitches and get him out. Napoli can hit a homer to put them ahead if you walk Ortiz.”

The first pitch was a change-up. It was higher than it was supposed to be. “Benoit’s change-up has good action down and away to a left-hander,” Avila said. “It’s a pitch that usually dives down and away. That one kind of stayed flat and stayed up a little bit.”

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Right fielder Torii Hunter, who somehow almost caught Ortiz’s ball, said: “You can’t let David beat you like that. He is one of the best post-season hitters in the history of the game. Everybody knows that.

“It’s 5-1. Worst-case scenario, if he walks, that’s one run.”

Ortiz’s grand slam provided another demonstration of why managers try to get the closer in a game before the potential tying run comes to the plate. The pitcher must have a bit of a margin for error.

Missed opportunity

If the Tigers had won this game, they would have been in a tremendous position. They would have gone home with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series and the restored

Justin Verlander to pitch Game 3. Boston would have had to wonder about having so few hits and striking out so many times. A sweep would have loomed.

But now everything is different. The series suddenly is tied. The Tigers have to win all three games at home to keep the series from coming back to the bedlam of Fenway Park. The American League pennant might have been decided in the eighth inning Sunday night.

Boston’s eighth-inning rally brought to light something the Tigers had survived all season until now. Benoit replaced Valverde as the closer. But no one replaced Benoit as the reliable eighth-inning set-up man. A four-man crew couldn’t get through the inning with the four-run lead.

Will Middlebrooks, the No. 9 hitter, doubled off Jose Veras with one out. Veras was supposed to be the new set-up man, but he has been inconsistent since his arrival at the end of July.

Left-hander Drew Smyly came in to face left-handed Jacoby Ellsbury. Smyly did the one thing he couldn’t do with a four-run lead: He walked Ellsbury. That’s when the Tigers lost the handle on the inning. That’s when it really began to look like Ortiz would bat as the potential tying run.

“You’ve got to give Ellsbury credit to lay off a couple of tough pitches,” Avila said. “It’s a tough situation _ you’re trying to make a good pitch, but you don’t want to leave one over the middle of the plate.”

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Al Alburquerque relieved. He fanned Shane Victorino for the second out. But with Ortiz on deck, he had to retire Pedroia. He didn’t. Ortiz was coming to bat. It was like giving the ball back to Tom Brady with two minutes left and the Patriots four points down.

Hunter fell into the Red Sox bullpen in his bid to snare Ortiz’s drive. If Hunter had caught the ball, tumbled over the wall and held on, it would have been an out because the umpire would have seen him catch the ball.

Hunter said that if he had caught the ball, it would have been the best catch of his career. He came close to the catch that would put him in his best position to go to the World Series for the first time. He came close to robbing Ortiz, his good friend since they were minor-league teammates with Minnesota.

But he didn’t make the catch. Four Tigers relievers had combined to let happen what Jose Valverde suffered in the ninth inning of Game 1 of the championship last year at Yankee Stadium: a four-run tying rally. Each of the inning’s four relievers was charged with one of the four runs.

As the ninth began, Rick Porcello took over. He was trying to play the same role his friend Smyly did in the wake of Valverde’s meltdown at Yankee Stadium last year. Smyly threw two scoreless innings for the extra-inning win, and the Tigers went on to sweep the series. Porcello never got an out. Jonny Gomes led off with a one-out infield single, and shortstop Jose Iglesias threw the ball away. Soon, Gomes was home.

Iglesias has been compared to Ozzie Smith and Omar Vizquel, the two most acrobatic shortstops of recent decades. The one temptation for shortstops so talented is they feel they should be able to get an out on any ball they get to, even if there are balls where that’s not true and they’d be better off holding the ball and not rushing a throw that goes wild. If Iglesias had held the ball on that play, no one could have blamed him.

A good sign

Miguel Cabrera’s homer Sunday night resembled the game-winner he hit in Game 5 in Oakland. He swung at a pitch up around his shoulders and sent it on a high arc not far over the left-field fence.

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Cabrera now has two homers in the last three games after he had one his previous 29. On his first at-at Sunday night after the homer, Cabrera rocketed the ball about 400 feet to center for an out. Perhaps his groin and abdomen are feeling better and he’s able to drive the ball with close to his normal authority. That is one piece of good news out of this game for the Tigers.

Boston's finest

In 2001, Brady became the Patriots quarterback.

In 2003, Ortiz became the Red Sox designated hitter.

And ever since, leads against the Patriots and Red Sox in the late going have been in perpetual jeopardy.

About a half-hour before Sunday night’s first pitch, the fans already in the Fenway stands who were following the Patriots game roared Brady completed his latest successful fourth-quarter comeback.

Several hours later, with the stands now full, those fans were cheering even louder for Ortiz. Like Brady, he had brought his team from behind one more time and left the opposition standing on the field, stunned.

Contact John Lowe: jlowe@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @freeptigers.